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Lufthansa has bought a large chunk of Air Berlin

Lufthansa has confirmed it will purchase large parts of insolvent airline Air Berlin. The deal will see Lufthansa take on several parts of the Air Berlin business, as well as taking on 3,000 Air Berlin workers.

Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr had earlier suggested that Lufthansa would purchase 81 of Air Berlin's 144 planes, as well as take on around 3,000 of the company's staff. He also told the Rheinische Post newspaper that Lufthansa would invest up to 1.5 billion euros into Air Berlin as part of its takeover of the assets.

"Today will be a milestone in the history of Lufthansa and Air Berlin," said Spohr in Berlin ahead of the official announcement that a formal deal had been agreed between the airlines.

The sale still needs approval from creditors and European Union anti-trust authorities to take effect.

Further negotiations to pick up the leftovers of Air Berlin are ongoing with easyJet.

Sealing the deal quickly

Air Berlin, which once employed around 8,000 people, filed for bankruptcy in August after its funding was cut off by Etihad, one of its major shareholders.